Table Tennis England The Winning Edge Issue 8 | Página 6

THE
WINNING EDGE
A FOCUS ON
YOUTH
Marcus Gustafson, the Talent Pathway Manager, gives us his thoughts on how
to build great young players.
Like anyone new to the game, young players need to
develop what I see as the ‘four cornerstones’ technique
(including movement), tactics, physical and mental side
of things. Another important thing for me is to become
a smart and creative match player, which can only be
done by playing a lot of matches from an early age.
In terms of movement, which I would focus a lot on, I
would recommend a focus on sideways and up and down
movement with all young players, because if they fall
behind on that early on in their career it's a big task to
catch up and correct that as a veteran.
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=IdTjnVUtRPs
This doesn’t need to be done with complicated exercises,
simply feed the ball wide, then down the middle, just to get
them moving. Keep your length predictable to begin with,
then start varying it to move them in and out, watching
how well they maintain their technique and footwork.
I’d like to see backspin started earlier with young people.
I can tell from the young players I’ve worked with on the
talent pathway that they are not great at attacking the
backspin. That will have come from not working on it early
in their career – and this is players at the highest level who
will have been coached since they were very young.
As soon as they can handle a normal drive I’d begin working
on backspin with a player, and the combination of backspin
and topspin in the same rally.
To be an effective coach you really need to be awake,
especially when you’re with young players, as their ability
can change quite quickly and you need to be ready to
change your training accordingly – to keep challenging the
player.
You also need to have a really clear picture in your mind of
what a correctly played shot should look like. Then, within
the technique of your player, correct and move them
towards that picture. With young players this could literally
be a picture, or a video, of the ideal technique, that you
show to them.
VIDEO:
https://www.you-
tube.com/watch?v=ObuqH-d_LQI
There are two different ways of learning: explicit and
implicit learning. I believe there’s a time and place for
both. Sometimes you need to get a clear message to
a young player and need to tell them straight. Other
times it’s preferable to get to the point you as a coach
want by asking questions and make the players think for
themselves, and that way find a way to deal with the
challenge themselves. Which to do when is not always
easy, and each coach needs to reflect on his or her way
of doing things in order to support the young player’s
journey.
WE